Dr. Bradley White, director of the Natural Resources DNA Profiling and Forensic Science Centre at Trent University, has identified a specific gene in goats that is associated with resistance and susceptibility to a common disease, scrapie.

Scrapie is a slow‐moving but fatal central nervous system disease in goats and sheep that limits productivity and poses a severe risk to the viability of the industry. Thanks to the discovery by Professor White, Ontario’s goat industry has received funding to test goat breeds and herds for the gene genotypes that may give resistance and susceptibility to the disease.

 “This funding for the genetic survey of Ontario goats will be a major step towards the creation of a strategy for developing scrapie‐resistant herds in Ontario and demonstrates the practical value of university‐industry partnerships,” explains Professor White.

“The future ability to genotype live goats for scrapie resistance and susceptibility would be a significant development,” says dairy goat farmer and Ontario Goat president Anton Slingerland. “As a farmer, I could use genetics to select goats that are scrapie resistant, potentially limiting the financial risk an outbreak would pose to my business and to the larger Ontario goat industry. Down the road, should this research gain international acceptance, this could also see the possible opening of potential export markets for Ontario goat genetics and changes to how outbreaks are controlled.”

Trent University will be working with Ontario Goat and the Centre of Excellence for Goat Research and Innovation on the multi‐year project, which will also involve developing herd‐specific scrapie control strategies for goats that includes breeding plans for increasing the number of potentially scrapie resistant animals, and improving awareness of the disease in the industry.

It may be possible in some herds to reduce the incidence of potentially susceptible animals in only one or two generations, which would make breeding strategies a cost‐effective solution for producers to protect themselves against the risk of scrapie. No treatment or vaccine is currently available for scrapie, which can be spread by positive animals that don’t show any symptoms of the disease. Researchers will work with randomly selected meat and dairy goat producers to genotype up to 1,500 Ontario goats.